Niwotian60 Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 I played the demo quite a bit yesterday and wanted to give some feedback: </font>The game is great. Online play (especially 2v2) is fast, fun, and seems to be well balanced. Everyone who was playing yesterday seemed to agree, and it was a very social group. Many of us are already identifying with some of our own pilots (my top pilot, TwoBeer, has a few nice medals) and even other players' pilots.</font>The game seems to be rock solid. I had it up and connected online for over 12 hours yesterday even when I wasn't playing. Memory usage didn't seem to be an issue and performance was excellent. Incidentally, I ran at unsupported resolutions (my laptop can run 1920x1080 and 1400x1050 and neither one caused a problem).</font>I'll definitely be buying the game when it comes out.</font> I do have a couple of suggestions. None of these are game issues and some are probably just my personal preference. </font>Put hotkeys for "join online game" and "manage online pilots" on the main screen. Once the game was set up these were really the only actions I used so it would be nice not to have to navigate a menu every time.</font>In the game screen, put the players' names up above their planes. I know that you can click on a player's plane and see who the owner is, but it would be nice to be able to immediately associate chat names with player positions.</font>When maneuver cards are used against wingmen, it would be nice to see a little visual indicator showing the extra bursts available. Maybe a little red text +1/2/3 bursts" or even just plus signs. It is a little distracting to not get any feedback after using the card.</font>When joining a game, it would be nice to have the option to randomize seat selection, rather than have it always default to the order people joined in.</font>In 2v2 mode, it would be nice if you are the second team member joining to be able to see the starting altitude your teammate picked.</font>The only balance issue I saw was when a leader was shot down the wingman immediately takes over with a full hand of six cards. That seems a bit too powerful, especially at higher altitudes where the other players have had to dump cards to climb. Personally, I would recommend five cards at very low and low, four cards at medium and high, and three cards at very high.</font>On the leader board it would be nice to have a page with all of the medals and their meanings and a link to that page from our individual medals.</font>In the online help it would be nice to have an appendix with all of the cards and what they do. It doesn't take very long to learn them but it would have helped me get started. Maybe even a little bit of advice for cards that have multiple purposes (e.g. vertical roll). You can only right-click (for info) on the cards during your own turn (that is the only time you can see them) and I felt like I was delaying the game when I did that.</font>One minor bug. On multiple occasions one side got an inconclusive result when the other side got a minor victory. I would expect minor victory is always the opposite of minor defeat.</font> Again, great game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartbert Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Those are some excellent suggestions, and I think a lot of them are easy enough to get into the final release. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and thanks for the great feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niwotian60 Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 Forgot one suggestion: During an attack or maneuver sequence, it would be nice to see more than just "Player x is selecting a maneuver". I would much rather see a running dialog like: Player1 attacks with a 2:3 In my sights. Player2 goes into a barrel roll Player1 responds with his own barrel roll Player2 attempts a tight turn Player1 counters the turn Player1 hits Player2 for 3 damage Even better, the option to log these. Think of the after action replays possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cull Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Originally posted by Niwotian60: Forgot one suggestion: During an attack or maneuver sequence, it would be nice to see more than just "Player x is selecting a maneuver". I would much rather see a running dialog like: Player1 attacks with a 2:3 In my sights. Player2 goes into a barrel roll [....SNIP] I definitely support this. Basically just amount to combining the two windows that are there currently. Also, the suggestion for a card reference in the help. **I launched into a review and deleted, as I realized this is not the time for that. Let's just say that overall, I'm liking it so far** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haohmaru Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Some great ideas there, lets hope some of them make the release. Bumping this post above the "Uhhhh" one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raxulus Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I think you have really captured the feeling of the card game. That's great. I really enjoy the game. Actually I find only one item not really useful and that's the time limit specially when playing a local game. This could be only set as an option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RawRecruit Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I played for a few hours last night and enjoyed it thoroughly. I also would support most of the minor tweaks mentioned above, though, esp. the running dialog. I played the campaign a couple of times which was quite good fun, too. Overall, I'll probabyl buy this when it's released. Oh, one wee suggestion...can you make the AI a bit easier cos I started to get a bit fed up with Me109s going through my Spitfires like a dose of salts!!!! :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjd0309 Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Originally posted by RawRecruit: Oh, one wee suggestion...can you make the AI a bit easier cos I started to get a bit fed up with Me109s going through my Spitfires like a dose of salts!!!! :mad: I was wondering if the AI get a better selection of cards than us? I played 30 to 40 games and found that the AI had a better selection of cards right from the start in almost all situations. Just curious about the make up of the AI... Cheers SJD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartbert Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 The AI does not draw better cards than human players. That is, we do not let the AI "cheat" by drawing specific cards from the deck. However, we do have a range of AI pilots that we can choose from that have various skills. Those skills may allow the AI pilot to draw extra cards, dive or climb better, etc. So it may seem like the AI pilots are drawing better cards, but it's more likely that they are making use of skills that give them an edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BremerWeltmeister Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I have some suggestions too: 1: Give the Leader a higher rank that than the wingman. He is the leader and should have a higher rank than the subordinate. If the leader starts at ex: flight officer and the wingman at pilot officer it would better-IMO 2:Give the wingman an option of founding another flight if he has enough experience. Fortunately (sp?) non of my leaders died until now, but I have heard that the wingman should take over the flight then. Maybe it would be possible of using the same algorithms to let him create an own flight. But...you dont have to change anything. It would be an exellent game nontheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RawRecruit Posted August 5, 2005 Share Posted August 5, 2005 I am amazed! Somehow this game represnets real life dogfights, yet it's a card game! Almost all games i've played, esp. 2v2, start out at high/medium and end up at low/very low, exactly how it usually happened. Bring on the full version! Well done in the design, Dan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomb Posted August 5, 2005 Share Posted August 5, 2005 this is not the case, in the RAF the best pilot or most experianced usually led not the highest ranked the wise leader knew this some died finding it out, some got lucky and survived finding it out you do create a new flight if the leader dies the wingman becomes the new leader with all his wingman points back to spend on leader skills hope that helps you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Verssen Posted August 5, 2005 Share Posted August 5, 2005 RawRecruit, Thank you! We are almost there. We're working like rabid squirrels getting everything ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozure Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 I don't recall seeing it suggested elsewhere, but maybe it has been - a simple side-only text chat, next to, above or below the general chat. A few times in 2v2 it would've been great to communicate certain things (i.e. - I'm OK, climb, dive, I'll cover, etc.) to a teammate without having the other side know. Also, though players who are familiar with the table-top board game are probably well aware, the horsepower and wingman mini-hand changes with altitude being incorporated into the ratings of the aircraft might initially confuse beginners. Is there any way to have extra bursts, lowered HP and wingman mini-hand reductions indicated in some way as numbers in parenthesis, icons, or what-have-you? Also, this is pretty dumb, but once in a game, my opponent had changed alt but I was distracted and forgot about it. During my turn, I tried a few times to click on his plane icon to attack (no crosshair, of course) and I found myself thinking "why can't I attack this element"? Now of course, if I had been paying full attention, I would have realized that he was on a different altitude level, but maybe a quick pop-up saying "Aircraft is at a different altitude" or something to that effect would eliminate the issue. [ August 09, 2005, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Kozure ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartbert Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 Originally posted by Kozure: I don't recall seeing it suggested elsewhere, but maybe it has been - a simple side-only text chat, next to, above or below the general chat. A few times in 2v2 it would've been great to communicate certain things (i.e. - I'm OK, climb, dive, I'll cover, etc.) to a teammate without having the other side know. A couple of others have asked about the same thing. We're going to add a team-chat feature that you can toggle by pressing Ctrl-T. This will switch back and forth between sending to just your team or everyone in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistura Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 I want to thank everyone involved with this "GREAT GAME". I will be buying 3 copies, and I can't wait. The other 2 are for friends of mine. I will do my best to introduce this game to others. The more to shoot down . Here is my wish list. 1. Will there be a tournament setup with the appropriate Bragging rights. Like a symbol or something next to the pilots name. I think that would be fun. You can have no kill pilots, or a back up team to take over with the same or lower point total. If you won your battle, but had a KIA to your Leader or Wingman the back up team takes over. 2. Have an award for anyone who shoots down the top ace for each country. Have it in a hall of fame type deal or attached to the Player and pilot that did it. More bragging rights . I can't think of anything else right now, but if I do I'll pass the idea on to you to use or abuse. Keep up the good work. 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Verssen Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 Mistura, Thank you! Your praise is very appreciated! We plan on having tournaments and contests. We also plan on adding a nation flag 'medal' for when your pilot kills (as in dead) another player's pilot. We thought players would like to know who the 'headhunters' are! I like your ideas for bragging rights! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hervé De Borée Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 I also did greatly appreciate the game. I also found AI pilots rather strongs (or lucky but may be I should be more careful when preparing my pilots with additional cards or skills. I would have one major feedback about GUI: - I think cards representation in the game should be improved, may be represented as a stack (like in Magic or Thoth for example), to keep contact with the genuine card game. This also relates to a previous comment from Nivotian60 about having a better representation of the sequence of cards played. Thus, the slots in the bottom middle right could be replaced with a place for the initial attack card and a stack for the sequence of action/reaction cards, represented as top half cards for saving room. During the course of the play, this would be replaced with usual slots. Since I guess this would involve important changes to the UI, having at least a small icon for attack/response/both, next to the name of the card or a colored block, or a small picture would be nice. But this is still a great game. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastakyle Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 Originally posted by Niwotian60: I played the demo quite a bit yesterday and wanted to give some feedback: I do have a couple of suggestions. None of these are game issues and some are probably just y personal preference. </font>When maneuver cards are used against wingmen, it would be nice to see a little visual indicator showing the extra bursts available. Maybe a little red text +1/2/3 bursts" or even just plus signs. It is a little distracting to not get any feedback after using the card.</font> Again, great game! Dang it. I didn't know about this rule. I must have missed it in the help file when I first started playing. I was wondering why my opponent two nights ago was burning manuever cards from his leader to my wingman. He seemed to be a pretty competent player so it seemed odd to me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 Hervé, the full version comes with a feature where you can open a window showing your leader's cards, either as text or as graphics. Not quite but almost as if they were cards... Showing the sequence of cards played is not in the initial release, but with the auto-update feature which will let you grab all the monthly free updates, we'll also be adding new features regularly, so perhaps it will make it in eventually. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northstar Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Any chance of changing the start sequence so that the dogfight preview actually stays up long enough to read it? When the reaction time is set to green, there is usually adequate time to go back and check it out, but that is not always the case at Vetran, and definitely not at Ace! It might also be helpful to have a way of checking pilot skills on the game board. Maybe a right click on the pilot or plane to bring up a list of skills or bought cards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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